Medieval meatloaf and buttered cauliflower

 This week's dinner was also served with a simple salad of greens tossed with an herbed and salted oil and vinegar dressing.

Mortreus de Chare (Pork and Ale Loaf)

Take pork, and seth it ynow; and take it vppe, and bawde hit, and hewe it and grinde it, and in a morter; And cast thereto grated brede, and then drawe the same broth thorgh a streynour, And temper hit with ale, and do al into a potte, and lete boile, and aley hit with yolkes of egges, And then let it boile no more, And cast thereto powder of ginger, Salt, And put hit in disshes in maner of Mortrewes, And cast thereto powder of ginger, & serue it forth.
- Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books.

1 pound ground pork
1 1/2 C ale or beer
1 C white bread crumbs
3 raw egg yolks
1 tsp. powdered ginger
1/4 tsp. salt

Sauté pork in a saucepan until brown. Add ale or beer. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about ten minutes.

Stir in bread crumbs, salt, ginger, and egg yolks. Continue simmering over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is very thick.

Scoop mixture into a lightly oiled mold or bowl. Allow to cool, and turn out onto a plate for serving, and garnish with powdered ginger.

Serves six to eight.

NOTES: This dish tasted much better than it looked. It is not unlike a pork pate and I think would go really well with some crusty bread to spread it on. I think it's the sort of dish that would look better coming out of a fancy mold so that it looks like something more than a pile of goo. Failing that, serving it on a bed of greens would have been a nice touch.

Buttered Colle-flower (Cauliflower With A Sweetened Cream Sauce)

Take a ripe Colle-flowre and cut off the buddes, boyle them in milke with a little Mace while they be very tender, then poure them into a Cullender, and let the Milke runne cleane from them, then take a ladle full of Creame, being boyled with a little whole mace, putting to it a ladle-full of thicke butter, mingle them together with a little Sugar, dish up your flowres upon sippets, poure your butter and creame hot upon it strowing on a little slict Nutmeg and salt, and serve it hot to the table.
- Beebe, Ruth Ann . Sallets Humbles & Shrewsbery Cakes

1 lb cauliflower, chopped
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp nutmeg or mace
2 tbs butter
1/4 cup cream
1/2 to 1 tbs sugar

Mix milk and nutmeg or mace and bring to a simmer. Add cauliflower and cook until cauliflower is tender but not mushy. Strain milk and set cauliflower aside in serving bowl.

In saucepan, heat butter, cream, and sugar until butter is melted and mixture is very warm. Pour over cauliflower and sprinkle the top with nutmeg. Serve warm.

A pair of recipes for a medieval flavored dinner

It's not hard to find or make medieval recipes.  A quick internet search uncovers hundreds of potential meals.  There are even whole menus online to draw inspiration for feasts.  Unfortunately, I've neither the time, inclination, or diners to create a medieval feast every Sunday night.  Heck, with the number of dishes found in most menus, I can't even really bring myself to do a single remove of a feast most of the time.   What I've started to do instead is base Sunday dinner on a modern "meat and vegetable" format but the dishes made are from medieval sources.  Tonight's mini-feast was roasted pork and an incredible asparagus salad that would be delicious served warm or cold and although the sources for these two recipes are separated by over 200 years, they made a lovely combination for an early spring feast.

Cormarye (Pork with red wine, coriander and caraway sauce)

 The original:  Take Colyandre, Caraway smale grounden, Powdour of Peper and garlec ygrounde in rede wyne, medle alle þise togyder and salt it, take loynes of Pork rawe and fle of the skyn, and pryk it wel with a knyf and lay it in the sawse, roost þerof what þou wilt, & kepe þat þat fallith þerfro in the rosting and seeþ it in a possynet with faire broth, & serue it forth witþ þe roost anoon.
Source: Forme of Cury, S. Pegge (ed.), 1390, London.

1 lbs. pork loin
3/4 tsp. coriander
3/4 tsp. ground caraway
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup red wine
1/2 cup broth

Mix spices and garlic with wine and pour over pork in a roasting pan. Prick the loin with a knife or fork, cover, and bake at 350°, basting regularly, until cooked to an internal temperature of 145, approximately 45 minutes to an hour. Strain the drippings from the roasting pan into a saucepan and add the broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Serve sauce with pork.

 Diuers Sallets boyled (Warm asparagus and onion salad)

Diuers Sallets boyled. Parboyle Spinage, and chop it fine, with the edges of two hard Trenchers vpon a boord, or the backe of two chopping Kniues: then set them on a Chafingdish of coales with Butter and Uinegar. Season it with Sinamon, Ginger, Sugar, and a few parboyld Currins. Then cut hard Egges into quarters to garnish it withall, and serue it vpon sippets. So may you serue Burrage, Buglosse, Endiffe, Suckory, Coleflowers, Sorrel, Marigold leaues, water Cresses, Leekes boyled, Onions, Sparragus, Rocket, Alexanders. Parboyle them, and season them all alike: whether it be with Oyle and Uinegar, or Butter and Uinegar, Sinamon, Ginger, Sugar, and Butter: Egges are necessary, or at least very good for all boyld Sallets.
Source : A New Booke of Cookerie, J. Murrell. 1615. London.

1 lb fresh asparagus, chopped into 3 inch pieces
1/2 onion sliced into 1/4 inch rings
1/4 cup currants
2 tbs butter
1 tbs cider vinegar
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp Sugar
1 hard-boiled egg, chopped

Parboil currents, onions and asparagus. Drain. In a skillet over low heat, add butter and vinegar, ginger, cinnamon, sugar. When butter is melted and ingredients combined, add drained ingredients and toss to coat. Serve topped with chopped hard-boiled egg. Good warm or cold.

NOTE: The original recipe says this is a good method for many kinds of vegetables, and is written for spinach, but says this is a good method for cooking other vegetables like cauliflower, onions, rocket, and even leeks, for my Endeweardian cousins.

Birthday Gift for Lady Elgiva Wilhelm

Lady Elgiva's birthday was recently and to celebrate her day, I made this girdle book just for her.  The book is a standard sew signature type binding.  I had wanted to do the cover in leather, but I didn't have any thin enough nor do I own the kind of knife used to thin leather out for book covers.  Instead, I opted for a brown suede fabric that from a distance looks reasonably like leather.  Hopefully Lady Elgiva will like it well enough to forgive me the anachronism.

Once the book was done, I thought I'd decorate the front pages with her arms and a bit of colorful vinework.  I Googled the German for "This book belongs to Lady Elgiva Wilhelm, creator of beautiful things" and put that in a ribbon across the pages. 

Here's hoping she can make use of it for many notes about clever things.